BEIJING, Feb. 5 -- China's major internet enterprises and related services companies saw their spending on research and development (R&D) increase faster in 2022, official data showed.

Last year, R&D spending of these firms totaled 77.18 billion yuan (about 11.45 billion U.S. dollars), up 7.7 percent year on year, with the growth rate expanding 2.7 percentage points from that in 2021, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In 2022, the companies raked in 141.5 billion yuan in profits, increasing by 3.3 percent year on year, while the combined business revenue of these enterprises eased 1.1 percent to about 1.46 trillion yuan from the previous year, said the ministry.

Major internet companies and related services companies are those with an annual business revenue of at least 20 million yuan.